Blood Doping in the NHL

Blood Doping in the NHL

The NHL's New Policy

Under the belief that artificial Blood Doping is bad the NHL will test for artificial Blood Doping during the season, the playoffs, and the offseason. Natural Blood Doping like sleeping high and training low will be allowed in the League. Artificial Blood Doping which is adding red blood cells to one’s own body will not be allowed. The NHL will slowly implement this policy, starting by adding one test per these season, offseason, and playoff. Slowly but the NHL will have increased tests for blood doping. The players that are found guilty of blood doping will have increased penalties. The people who are found to be blood doping a second time will be banned from the league.

Blood Doping and Cell Respiration Similarities

The relationship between blood doping and cellular respiration is that blood doping takes out your blood and increases the amount of red blood count. The more red blood cells there are, the more oxygen there is in your body. When there is more oxygen in your body, it will make your heart pump faster which will make you make you breathe faster.

Blood Dopers in the NHL

Bryan Berard failed a test for Blood Doping before the 2002 Winter Olympics. As a result he was banned from twenty season games, banned from International games for two years, and not allowed to participate in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

What Blood Doping Does to a Person

An athlete would consider blood doping because it improves your physical performance. The advantages are:

With more red blood cells, the athlete’s circulatory system can carry an increased amount of oxygen to their skeletal muscles.

The disadvantages are:

Abnormally high hematocrit levels can cause major health risks in athletes.

High hematocrit levels, or percentage of red blood cells by volume, forces the heart to pump harder due to the blood being more viscous. Forcing the heart to work harder will increase the risk of a heart attack.

Also high levels of red blood cells may cause blood clots, stroke, and lung clots.